通过“郭美美”事件研究中国非营利组织的公众信任重建|留学生dissertation

通过“郭美美”事件研究中国非营利组织的公众信任重建

——以中国红十字会为例

 

Research on Reconstruction of Public Trust of Non-profit Organizations in China through “Guo Meimei” Event

---Take Red Cross Society of China for Example

 

本研究旨在探讨郭美美事件后公众对中国红十字会公信力的评价。基于组织外部化理论、志愿失灵理论、信托理论和社会心理学理论，本研究对中国红十字会的公信力评价指标体系的确定。在此评价体系的基础上，从组织诚信、服务水平、慈善行为的履行、信息公开的公开度来评价中国红十字会的公信力。本研究采用文献分析法和案例研究法，通过比较分析法和层次分析法对相关数据、报告和dissertation进行分析。结果表明：中国红十字会组织声誉低、服务水平低、信息披露程度低、没有慈善行为。这些都是导致郭美美事件后红十字会公信力下降的原因。最后，作者提出了一些建议关于如何从权力制衡方面，红十字会的改革，对第三方评估机构的建立，完善管理，改革委员会，建立责任追究制度，注重人才的培养和公共危机发生时的关系，以及去行政化。

 

Acknowledgements

 

I express my gratitude to all people who have helped me with finishing this dissertation.  

My deepest gratitude goes first to XX, my tutor, for his constant encouragement and guidance. It is under his/her patient and meticulous guidance that I finished my research work and this dissertation.

Second, I express my heartfelt gratitude to XX, with their enthusiasm timely help, I was able to successfully complete sample survey work.

I am also greatly indebted to all of my teachers, who have instructed and helped me a lot in this academic year. 

Finally, I would also like to thank my parents. Their concern and support is the biggest power of my study.

 

Table of Content 
 

Abstract

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 The background of Guo Meimei event

1.2 Research significance 

1.3 Research aim and research objectives

1.4 Framework of this thesis

 

Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 Introduction of this chapter

2.2 Theory

2.2.1 Concept of non-profit organization (NPO) 

2.2.2 Concept and basic feature of public trust

2.2.3 The theory of organization externalization

2.2.4 Voluntary failure theory

2.2.5 Trust theory

2.2.6 Social psychology theory

2.3 Empirical study on public trust in the Red Cross#p#分页标题#e#

2.3.1 Relationship between government and charitable organizations

2.3.2 Imperfect management system

2.3.3 Information disclosure of charitable organizations

2.3.4 The evaluation indicators of public trust of NPO

2.4 Relevant researches on Guo Meimei event and the Red Cross

2.5 Critical analysis and theoretical innovation significance

2.6 Summary

Chapter 3 Methodology

3.1 Introduction of this chapter

3.2 Research approach

3.3 Data collection

3.4 Analytical method

3.5 Summary

Chapter 4 Discussion

4.1 Introduction of this chapter

4.2 Service

4.2.1 Lack of professional talent

4.2.2 Lack of training

4.2.3 Low management efficiency

4.2.4 Brief summary

4.3 Perform acts of charity in accordance with laws

4.3.1 Imperfect internal supervision

4.3.2 Undemocratic appointment, removal and decision-making

4.3.3 Unsound accountability mechanism

4.3.4 Behavior of going against purpose of public welfare occurring frequently

4.3.5 Brief summary

4.4 Openness and transparency of information disclosure

4.5 Organizational integrity

4.5.1 Bankruptcy of public trust in the Red Cross

4.5.2 Summary

4.6 Summary of this chapter

Chapter 5 Recommendation

5.1 Introduction of this chapter

5.2 Measures

5.2.1 Check and balance of power

5.2.2 Establish a third-party evaluation body

5.2.3 Reform the Council

5.2.4 Establish accountability mechanism

5.2.5 Improve the degree and quality of information disclosure

5.2.6 Pay attention to public relations at the time of crisis

5.2.7 Pay attention to staff training

5.2.8 De-administration

5.3 Summary

Chapter 6 Conclusion

6.1 Introduction of this chapter

6.2 Main points

6.3 Limitations

6.4 Future research

References

 

Abstract

 

This study aimed to discuss the public's evaluation on the public trust in Chinese Red Cross Society after Guo Meimei event. Based on the theory of organizational exteriorization, voluntary failure theory, trust theory and social psychology theory, this study determined the evaluation system of the public trust in Chinese Red Cross. Based on this evaluation system, it was from the levels of organizational integrity, service, performing acts of charity, openness of information disclosure to evaluate the public trust in the Chinese Red Cross. In this study, literature analysis and case study were adopted, through comparative analysis and analytic hierarchy process to analyze the related data, reports, and papers. The conclusions showed that there were low organizational reputation,  low service level, and low degree of information disclosure, failing to perform acts of charity in the Chinese Red Cross. These were reasons leading to the decline of public trust in the Red Cross after Guo Meimei event. Finally, the author put forward some suggestions on how to reform the Red Cross from the aspects of balance of power, establishment of the third party's evaluation organization, perfecting the management, reforming the council, establishing the accountability system, paying attention to personnel training and public relations at the time of crisis, as well as de-administration.#p#分页标题#e#

 

Keywords: the Red Cross; Guo Meimei event, public trust, organizational exteriorization theory, voluntary failure theory; trust theory; social psychology theory 

 

Chapter 1 Introduction

 

1.1 The background of Guo Meimei event

In 2011, “Guo Meimei event” shocked the Chinese society, triggering tremendous doubts on non-profit organizations taking Red Cross Society of China (hereinafter called as the Red Cross) as their representative. The public trust of Red Cross suffered a disastrous decline (Chen, 2012). 

In June 20, 2011, with the title of “Business General Manager of Red Cross Society of China”, Guo Meimei showed a series of photos on Sina weibo (Xu, 2011). According to the photos, a large number of personal effects, such as “Maserati” sports car, “Hermes” lady bags and villa, showing her luxurious living conditions and economic capability. Such information was rapidly transmitted and reported through Chinese Internet, and caused uproar (Xu, 2011).

In 2011, “Guo Meimei event” attracted the attention from the whole society, and finally caused a great disturbance on the public trust of the Red Cross. The public have huge doubts and curiousness on the possibility of corruption phenomenon existing in the daily operation of Red Cross Society of China and the degree of corruption (Qian, 2012). The event showed Guo Meimei used the false identity of business general manager of the Red Cross of China to make huge misdirection on the relationship between Guo Meimei and the Red Cross to the public through Sina weibo, which gave death warrant to the social prestige and public trust of the Red Cross accumulated for many years (Qian, 2012).

In August 7, 2014, Guo Meimei, who was arrested because she was suspected of being involved in gamble and sex trade, confessed when received police investigation that she and her capital had none relationship with the Red Cross (Zhao, 2015). Although “Guo Meimei event” was clear, and the government and the Red Cross also had done lots of explanation work, the social reputation of the Red Cross did not win any improvement. Today, “Guo Meimei even” gradually faded out Chinese people’s sight, but the public society and social influence imposed on the Red Cross have not recovered to the previous level (Zhao, 2015). 

Guo Meimei event sparked public concern for Chinese Red Cross, a series of problems of the Red Cross have been exposed and sparked public discussion. First, the Red Cross may have serious corruption problems, for example, a high price of a hospitality bill of the Red Cross was disclosed (Zhao, 2015). Second, judging from the service level, Qian (2012) disclosed that the Red Cross as a government-run charitable organization was difficult to avoid bringing all kinds of “official customs” into the charity industry, the Red Cross has problems of inefficient work, loose management, low level of service, for example, there was no determined modern financial management system, accounting was not timely, books, accounting documents, book management were confused, some donated relief supplies failed to be sent to disaster areas in time and they were stranded in the warehouse of the Red Cross, and some donated food have expired; some donor information could not be searched and so on (Qian, 2012). Finally, the Red Cross took charitable act for the purpose to enrich themselves, for example, it was disclosed through news that prices of some relief goods purchased by the Red Cross were too high (Xu, 2011). The exposure of these issues greatly reduced the trust of the Red Cross. The United Morning News Network took "After Guo Meimei event, will you donate to the Red Cross?" as the title to carry out a reader vote, a total of 190,000 valid votes were received, of which up to 77.67% of the readers said that they would not donate and they would choose other channels, 10.75% of the readers chose "as the case may be", only 11.58% of the readers said that they" still trust the Red Cross ", as shown in Figure 1 (Yang and zhen, 2012). #p#分页标题#e#

 Figure 1 A survey on the intentionality of the public for donation to the Red Cross after Guo Meimei event

1.2 Research significance

This study chose the Chinese Red Cross Society as the object of a case study. The reason was that, firstly, Guo Meimei event and the Chinese Red Cross was a very influential scandal in the history of charity development in China. It not only allowed the whole Chinese society to attach importance to corruption, management issues of charitable organization, but also made the Chinese government and charitable organizations recognize the importance of public trust for the development of charity, once they lost public trust, no matter how well-known a charitable organization was, it was difficult for it to continue to survive. Secondly, Guo Meimei event made many problems of the Red Cross be exposed, the Chinese Red Cross was once the largest charitable organization which accepted the most donations, it was also one of the charitable organizations that was trusted by Chinese public most. If there was such a serious problem of corruption, dereliction of duty existing in the Chinese Red Cross, then the problems were more likely to exist in other charitable organizations and it has a certain universality throughout the country, thus choosing the Chinese Red Cross as the research object could make the research results more representative.

From the previous analysis, Guo Meimei event had huge negative impact on the social public trust and influence for the Red Cross of China, and to some extent, it produced obstacle to China’s charity. Therefore, the research has significance of two aspects as follows: on the one hand, because of the serious deficiency of self-management supervising systems of the Red Cross, especially the deficiency in transparency of operational management, it resulted that the negative impact of Guo Memei was expanded without limit (Yang and Zhen, 2012). Therefore, the study makes deep analysis on the specific reasons for the deficiency of public trust of the Red Cross and explores the solving approaches through two perspectives of strengthening self-management and public management to strengthen the level of management of the Red Cross, then to provide strategies for reducing negative influences of “Guo Meimei event” imposed on the Red Cross. On the other hand, in view of the negative impact on China’s charity, and the weak situation of relevant non-profit organizations in China on handling public relations crisis (Yang and Zhen, 2012), the research under this study will help to improve the competency of dealing with crisis of public relation, which will boost the overall development of China charity.

1.3 Research aim and research objectives

The research aim of this study was to explore the public's evaluation on the trust of the Red Cross after Guo Meimei event. The specific research objectives were designed as follows:

Research objective 1: to determine the evaluation indicators of the trust of the Red Cross;#p#分页标题#e#

Research objective 2: to understand the trust of the Red Cross according to the evaluation indicators of trust

Research objective 3: to understand the management issues of the Red Cross 

Research objective 4: to propose recommendations for improving the trust of future management of the Red Cross.

1.4 Framework of this thesis

The first chapter of this thesis introduces the research background, significance and research aim, objectives. The second chapter reviews theories and empirical researches relating to this study, so as to point out the theoretical innovation of this study. The third chapter presents the methodology. The fourth chapter combines with relevant literatures to discuss the impact of Guo Meimei event on the public trust in the Red Cross. The fifth chapter brings forward recommendations on how the Red Cross improves the management to improve public trust. The last chapter summarizes the full text and puts forward directions for future research.